The subject matter herein relates generally to pluggable transceiver assemblies and communication systems that include pluggable transceiver assemblies.
Communication systems exist today that utilize plug and receptacle assemblies to transmit data. For example, network systems, servers, data centers, and the like may use plug and receptacle assemblies to interconnect the various devices of the communication system. A plug and receptacle assembly includes a cable assembly having a pluggable transceiver (or electrical connector) and a receptacle assembly. The receptacle assembly is designed to receive the pluggable transceiver and communicatively couple to the pluggable transceiver. The receptacle assembly is also designed to absorb thermal energy away from the pluggable transceiver and, for example, permit the thermal energy to dissipate into the surrounding region.
The pluggable transceiver includes signal pathways and ground pathways in which the signal pathways convey data signals and the ground pathways control impedance and reduce crosstalk between the signal pathways. The pluggable transceivers may be configured to transfer electrical signals in accordance with industry standards. By way of example, known industry standards for pluggable transceivers include small-form factor pluggable (SFP), enhanced SFP (SFP+), quad SFP (QSFP), C form-factor pluggable (CFP), and 10 Gigabit SFP, which is often referred to as XFP. The pluggable transceivers may be capable of implementing one or more communication protocols. Non-limiting examples of communication protocols that may be implemented by pluggable transceivers include Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). The pluggable transceiver may be a direct attach copper (DAC), an active optical cable (AOC), or an optical transceiver (Txcvr).
Among other things, industry standards require that a pluggable transceiver have a predetermined physical configuration that is partially based on the number of lanes or channels supported by the pluggable transceiver. For example, the QSFP standard is designed to support four bi-directional lanes. If a greater number of lanes were desired, it would not only be necessary for the configuration of the pluggable transceiver to be changed, but also the configuration of the receptacle assembly. This would require physical design changes (e.g., changes to size and shape) and electrical design changes (e.g. changes in data processing and/or transmission) to the receptacle assembly. Design changes to industry standards can be costly and have limited applications.
Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative pluggable transceiver that increases the number of communication lanes while minimizing the design changes to the receptacle assembly.